West takes early lead in WVC girls basketball race

WAUSAU – The Warriors will end the month atop the Wisconsin Valley Conference girls basketball standings.

Maddie Schires scored 27 points to lead host Wausau West to a 58-48 win over D.C Everest in an early-season showdown between the two teams without a loss in conference play. West will have sole possession of first place in the WVC until the conference schedule resumes in the first week of January.

“It’s huge, we knew we had to get it done today,” said Schires, who went 14-for-14 from the free throw line in the win “We did what we had to do and executed what our coach wanted us to do and we just played well as a team. We knew it was going to be an aggressive game. Both of us are super aggressive, so we knew there were going to be fouls and it was going to be a back-and-forth game.”

The Warriors went 27-for-32 from the line as a team.

“Coach always says, ‘They’re free points, they’re easy points,’ ” Schires said of the free throws. “He expects us to make them and we expect to be able to get to the line with pressure and make (the shots). It’s not shocking to us that we made them, but it was very important in this game.”

Schires scored five straight points to give West the lead for good with seven minutes left in regulation. Schires had a steal near midcourt and was fouled as she scored on a drive to the basket. The sophomore then hit the ensuing free throw to give West a 39-35 lead.

A basket by Caitlin Deaton gave West a seven-point lead. Everest got as close as 41-38 with 4:36 left on a basket by Taylor Petit, but the Warriors pulled away to improve to 2-0 in conference play.

Petit finished with a team-high 23 points for an Evergreens team which struggled from the field throughout the game.

“I think we really struggled to finish (in the paint) and that came back to bite us,” Everest coach Matt Bullis said. “But West played really good defense and they are a tough team, especially at home.”

West’s Alexa Sheehan was injured on a collision with Everest’s Ashley Hodell just over midcourt with 1:20 left in the game. The Warriors senior guard hit the floor hard on the collision, and was medically attended to before eventually being transported from the court on a stretcher.

The teams then returned to the court for a short warm-up before they played out the final 70 seconds.

“We’re all very concerned about her health first. The rest of (the game) just seems like an afterthought,” West coach Jason Teske said. “But she is a strong kid and hopefully everything will turn out well.”

Everest trailed by 10 points early in the second half, but battled back and took a 35-34 lead with 9:44 left in regulation on Lauren Rohr’s second 3-pointer of the game.

Schires responded with a basket to bring the Warriors back to within a point, and then followed with the three-point play moments later.

“I thought we guarded Caitlin Deaton pretty well tonight, but I don’t think we did a great job on Maddie,” Bullis said. “But great players find a way to score. She did that for her team tonight.”

The Warriors trailed by four points early in the first half but took the lead with a 12-3 run started by a 3-pointer by Sarah Snoeyenbos.

West extended its lead to as much as 10 points in the half, which ended with the Warriors holding a 27-19 cushion.

Schires and Petit had 12 and 11 points, respectively, in a rugged first half in which the two teams combined for 18 fouls and 13 turnovers. Both Schires and Petit, who entered the game averaging more than 13 points per game, picked up two fouls in the opening four minutes of regulation, but went the rest of the half without a being called for a third.

“(Everest) has such great strengths,” Teske said. “They’re big, they’re physical. That’s the first time we’ve played a team that has face guarded both Maddie and Caitlin. That kind of threw (the players) for a little bit. You saw that especially early when we had turnovers in five of our first six possessions.”

Tim Johnson: 715-845-0731, or timothy.johnson@gannettwisconsin.com; on Twitter @timmyjo11

DC EVEREST (48): Madison Stolze 2, Sarah Lehrke 2, Lauren Rohr 6, Natalie Mohring 7, Alexis Wojonowiak 2, Taylor Petit 23, Ashley Hodell 5, Lexie Higgins 3.

WAUSAU WEST (58): Alexa Sheehan 1, Caitlin Deaton 11, Shelby Samz 3, Maddie Schires 27, Tess Hauer 6, Kadie Deaton 7, Sarah Snoeyenbos 5.